Effect Of Crop Diversification On Food Security: The Case Of Dendi Woreda West Shoa Zone, Oromia National Regional State Ethiopian

Abstract

Especially in Ethiopia and sub-Saharan Africa, agriculture plays a vital role in rural development, poverty alleviation, food security, and economic growth in developing nations. Crop diversifica tion is a critical tactic for reducing poverty and enhancing smallholder farming's sustainability, profitability, and productivity. In Ethiopia's west Shoa zone Dendi District of Oromia Regional State, the study investigates the relationship between household food security and crop diversifi cation. A mixed method was utilized in the research to conduct a thorough analysis of the topic of crop diversification strategies and food security status. To get insightful results, the research strat egy included primary and secondary data along with quantitative and qualitative data. The quanti tative methods applied to the data. The finding indicates that 57.22 percent of rural households in study area did not diversify cropping systems while 42.78 percent of the household have diversi fied the cropping systems. While food security results showed that 58.82 percent were food secure and 41.18 percent were foods insecure. It finds that households with higher crop diversification intensities have more diverse food crops, leading to improved dietary diversification and reduced food insecurity. Factors such as household size, income, education, and livestock ownership also impact food security. The study suggests policy initiatives to promote crop diversification to im prove food and nutritional gains. It emphasizes supporting farmers by alleviating resource con straints and providing access to price information, integrating diversification into the national ex tension system, modernizing smallholder farmers' cropping, improving market infrastructure, pri oritizing livestock development, and developing irrigated agriculture and also highlights the im portance of education and health services in improving food security. Generally study provides guidance for policymakers and stakeholders in implementing these strategies